Cagayan champion Tony Vlachos was finally voted out of Survivor during the two-hour premiere of Game Changers
(Robert Voets/CBS)

The Survivor Game Changers season is officially upon us, and every week, Parade’s Josh Wigler will bring you interviews with the castaways as they’re voted off the island. Click here to make sure you don’t miss a single story, and click here to revisit our massive preseason coverage.

Nobody wants to lose Survivor. But if you have to lose? There are certainly worse ways to go than getting eliminated at the climax of the historic franchise’s landmark 500th episode, ousted by the only person who has ever won Survivor twice. At least it’s an event!

Is any of that a consolation to Tony Vlachos, the compelling Cagayan champion who returned to Survivor for Game Changers, only to become the second person voted out of the season? Let’s ask the man himself. Here’s Tony’s take on his six-day trip back to Survivor, his royal rumble with veritable queen Sandra Diaz-Twine, a status check on some of his wildest preseason machinations, and much more.

Josh Wigler (Survivor press, Parade): Tony!

Tony Vlachos (Cagayan): Yo, what up, Josh?

Wigler: Noooooo!

Tony: I know, man. (Laughs.) I’m sorry, man.

Wigler: It’s not your fault, you did everything right. You’re a perfect human being. I have no complaints. I’m mad at everybody else.

Tony: You should play Survivor with those kinds of lies, man! (Laughs.) That’s good. Oh, man.

Wigler: How are you doing, Tony?

Tony: Oh, man. I’m shedding a lot of tears over here. That was devastating, man. Devastating.

Wigler: This was your first time ever getting voted out of Survivor. What do you remember about that night? Was it surreal, getting your torch snuffed?

Tony: No, you know what, Josh? Man, Going into Tribal, I was expecting it. I was 99% sure it was going to be me going. I kind of expected it. It wasn’t as surreal as if I had been blindsided. I know Ciera got blindsided, so for her, it must have been a surreal experience. But for me? Nobody wanted to talk to me before the Tribal. I went to Aubry and said, “Let’s make a move here. You know you’re on the bottom. If they throw their votes at me and I have an idol, you’re going home.” She said, “Tony, if that’s the case? Then let’s let fate take its course.” I went to Troyzan and said, “Troyzan, can I talk to you for a minute, man?” And he goes, “Tony, please. I’m having a zen moment right now.”

Wigler: A ‘zan moment.

Tony: A ‘zan moment, right before Tribal. I go to Jeff Varner and go, “Jeff, Jeff! Come here!” He gives me a thumbs up and a wink in his eye at me, from a mile away. He didn’t want to come close to me. I’m like, “Aw, Jesus.” I go up to Malcolm. “Hey Malcolm, listen to me. Let’s make a move here. Let’s do this.” And he said, “Let’s leave it alone right now, Tony. It’s too close to Tribal. I don’t want to scramble now and get everyone into a panic.” The vote was supposed to be Aubry. That’s what we were all saying. I knew it wasn’t the case. I’m trying to talk to everybody and anybody, but nothing. That Sandra, man. She’s a really good player. She had them strong, gunning at me. There was no turning any of them, man.

Wigler: So you knew, going into Tribal Council: “This is it, this is my final ride.”

Tony: The writing was all over the wall. But 99% isn’t 100%. There’s always that 1% that something can change at Tribal. Somebody can say something that changes somebody’s mind. But it was over for me, man. It was so obvious. They all pretty much told me, “Hey Tony! You’re done.” And I looked for that idol, man. For six days nonstop. I couldn’t find it. That whole jungle was in a disarray. The typhoon that hit right before I got there? All the trees were knocked down. There were holes in every tree. I kept checking everything nonstop, and I just couldn’t find it, man. I couldn’t do it.

Wigler: It’s this royal rumble between you and Sandra, the king and the queen. Was this inevitable, or was there something that you guys could have done differently where it didn’t get to this point?

Tony: You know what, man? You see plenty of footage of me and her saying we would love to work together and get deep into the game. That was the case. We really wanted to work together. I said, “Sandra, you know you cannot win this game without sitting next to another winner. And I know I don’t have a chance of winning this game without sitting next to another winner.”

Wigler: And you believed that?

Tony: I believed that. Not without Sandra, but without a winner. If it’s me against someone who lost the game? For these people, it might be their last time ever playing the game, as a non-winner. They have to be saying: “We have to win this game. This might be our last chance. We cannot give another win to somebody who has already won the game. It doesn’t make any sense.” At least I thought that. I truly believed that in order for me or any of the winners to win, we would have to sit next to one another. No way we win with another non-winning person. That was my pitch to Sandra, it was my true belief, it was not a con, and I’m sure she agreed with it, because she knows! So we have the alliance. It’s me, Sandra, Malcolm, Caleb and Aubry. It was solid. It was good.

Wigler: A real argument for that being the greatest hypothetical alliance in Survivor history.

Tony: Oh, man. Going into the merge with that kind of an alliance? Even if we got swapped but we hit the merge and we reunited again, we would have been a force. But what happened was we moved our camp closer to the water well. It was 75 feet away from our camp site. So they could see everything that goes on there during the day. I would go and test the ground a little bit, make the hole deeper and deeper. But I couldn’t take that chance anymore. Troyzan walked up on me during the day time. I figured I have to start doing this at night time. So I waited up for hours and hours until I made sure everyone was sound asleep. I crawled over there and dug it deeper and deeper. Sandra and Troyzan come walking along. That’s when you saw me eavesdropping, and I heard them say my name. What are you going to think, they walked off into the jungle at four in the morning to say that I’m a great player and they want to work with me? No! It’s Sandra saying she wants to get rid of Tony! Or at least that’s what I thought. Now that I see in hindsight, they weren’t saying that, but that’s what I’m going to think in the moment and it’s what I have to act on. Doesn’t matter after the fact what they were talking about; the point is that I thought they were gunning for me in that moment. I said, I have to rush up on them to catch them off guard and see what they’re going to tell me. Are they lying to me, or are they going to tell me the truth? So I ran up to them and said, “Troyzan, what’s going on here?” He says he’s looking at the tide! Jesus. Come on, man. So I go to Sandra, and say, “Sandra, what’s going on here? Everything okay?” And she goes, “No, we’re talking about the crate being too close to the fire.” At that point I’m thinking, “One hundred percent, they are plotting against me. Sandra’s turned on me.” Troyzan was never in the alliance; I threw his name out numerous times. I would say that if anything happens, we have to get rid of Jeff Varner, Troyzan or Hali, because they’re not threatening enough to protect us. We need threats who can protect us. Nobody is going to say let’s get rid of Hali before we get rid of Tony later on in the game. Nobody’s going to do that. So that’s why I pitched that to them. When I see Troyzan and Sandra talking, and when they’re lying to me, I figured that’s it. Sandra’s turned. She probably told Troyzan I’m throwing his name out there, and that’s it. So what do I have to do now? I have to go after Queen Sandra. It’s what I tried to do, but unfortunately for me, her social game was stronger than mine. And who knows. I didn’t know who was in bed with who before the game started. I don’t talk to nobody outside the game. It was scary. I didn’t know who I could trust or who I could talk to. I didn’t know nothing. I took my chances. I went to Caleb, I went to Malcolm, I went to Aubry, I went to Michaela, and nobody was having it. Nobody was having it. They would just nod their heads, and I would see right through that.

Wigler: Bursting off into the jungle, screaming llama, as your first action on the beach… was that spontaneous or premeditated?

Tony: It was a little bit of both. (Laughs.) The premeditated part was that I knew going into the game, they know I’m filled with antics and shenanigans. I didn’t want to hide that. I wanted to tell them, “This is me. I’m in your face. This is who I am. I’m just a clown and a goof. I’m going to run into the jungle like a nut job.” When we first got there, we took a field trip around the whole campsite, trying to get acquainted with the environment — where the water well was, where the tree mail was — and when we’re walking around as the group, I look at tree mail and it looks like there’s a good spot there to hide the clue or an idol or something. When we got back to start building the shelter, I figure I can’t sneak off. All eyes are on me. They keep looking at me. Every time I make a move, they look to see where I’m going. So you know what? Instead of trying to sneak off and give them bad vibes, I’m just going to throw it out there: “Guys, I’m gonna go look for the idol.” And I took off running! And it’s exactly what I did, because behind every joke, lies the truth. And when nobody followed me?

Tony: Yeah, yeah. Cagayan spoiled me. All I had to do was dig under every iconic tree I found in Cagayan. Over here, there was nothing iconic. Everything was just knocked over and on the ground. Everything looked the same. Oh man. What was I going to do?

Wigler: And with the spy bunker, it became clear pretty quickly that it wasn’t working out?

Tony: The spy bunker would have been perfect if we didn’t have the campsite so close to the water well. It was perfect. I did some dry runs. I put myself under there. I covered myself in debris. I was sitting in there pretty nice. I was going to try to trick their eyes by putting debris there all the time, so they would only see the debris there every time they came by, so that nothing would look out of place when I was really hiding underneath it. But I never got a chance to implement it. I never got a chance to use it.

Wigler: Did you get a chance to unleash the clones?

Tony: It was too soon, man. You know what? I was gone so fast, I didn’t even get bit by a mosquito, man. That’s how fast I was gone.

Wigler: I am so upset to hear this. Are you disappointed you never had the chance to link up with Sarah?

Tony: It would have been nice. I knew I had someone on that side where we played together. It didn’t work out the best in Cagayan. I lied to her then. But it was behind us. That’s all we knew out there, man. Just each other. I was looking forward to getting to that side. But it just didn’t happen, man. Nothing happened for me in that game. I never got no momentum.

Wigler: This was your first time getting voted out of Survivor. How did you reconcile that? Going from being the winner of Survivor: Cagayan, truly one of the best seasons in Survivor history in my opinion, and then getting voted out second here. How hard was it to contend with?

Tony: It was difficult, man. I was upset at the other players. I wasn’t upset at Sandra. Sandra played a great game. I was upset at the other players for choosing to get rid of me, not instead of Sandra, but instead of one of the other weaker threats — the Hali Fords, the Jeff Varners, the Troyzans. Great people. But forget how great they are as people. As far as players? They didn’t offer protection. They should have been easy outs. We have Michaela as an unknown; you can use her as a threat later on, saying we don’t know what she did, we have to get rid of her. We have Aubry, who is a great player, one day we’ll have to get rid of her. You have Sandra, you have Caleb, you have Malcolm — you have all of these people to protect you as shields, and you don’t have that in Hali and Jeff and Troy. It would’ve been the smartest thing to do, to get rid of them now, because come merge time? You have nobody to barter with. So I was upset.

Wigler: Before the season, you told me that if you lose, you will never play again. Six days later, you lose the game. Do you still feel that way, that you’re never going to play Survivor again?

Tony: When I got snuffed, I said, “That’s it. I’ll never play this game again. My jig is up. I was a one-hit wonder. I’ll never do it again. I’m retired.” Three months later, I was like, “Oh, I have to call Jeff. I have to tell him I want to play for a third time.” And then I watched the episode last night? And I’m back to being retired.

Wigler: NO!

Tony: Yeah, at this point, I’ll never do it again. (Laughs.) Maybe in two months I’ll call Jeff back with a different answer. But at this point? I’m done.

Wigler: I really think time and distance is going to be your friend here. There were things working for you out here. You heard it with Malcolm, saying something like, “I love Tony! He’s different from what I expected! I just expected a mad man, but he’s fun to be around!” I really think things could be different for you on round three.

Tony: Man, Josh, and that’s what disappoints me. There were some great players out there with me. Just that stupid night time talk with Troyzan and Sandra, it ruined everything. It ruined everything with me and Sandra. We were so good. It was just that one night. When I rushed at her, she felt uncomfortable with me asking her questions like that. At that point, now that we’ve seen it? They weren’t plotting against me. But I heard my name in the middle of the night! They could have just told me: “Tony, listen, we were talking about you, but it’s nothing bad. We were going through the list of players on the team. That’s it.” I would have been good with that! I would have bought into that. But don’t tell me crates and fire and looking at the tide. Come on, man.

Wigler: So if you’re retiring from Survivor, are you going to retire from Twitter again, too? Are you about to disappear? And where will you go?

Tony: (Laughs.) I’m slowly retiring off Twitter, man.

Wigler: NO!!!

Tony: You know how it is, man. I go on my tirades, I start regretting things, I start retracting things, I start deleting things. (Laughs.) I’m trying to work on my impulse behavior.

Wigler: Listen, this was the 500th episode of Survivor. You were voted out by the only two-time winner. At least it’s an event. If you’re going to go? What a way to go.

Tony: Yeah. I got stung by the queen bee!

Josh Wigler is a writer, editor and podcaster who has been published by MTV News, New York Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Comic Book Resources and more. He is the co-author ofThe Evolution of Strategy: 30 Seasons of Survivor, an audiobook chronicling the reality TV show’s transformation, and one of the hosts of Post Show Recaps, a podcast about film and television. Follow Josh on Twitter @roundhoward.